This book provides an innovative account of how the globalization of production and the emergence of global value chains impacts on trade preferences, lobby strategies and the political influence of EU firms. It sheds new light on the complex EU-China trade relations.

This book provides an innovative account of how the globalization of production and the emergence of global value chains impacts on trade preferences, lobby strategies and the political influence of EU firms. It sheds new light on the complex EU-China trade relations.

Firms are central to trade policy-making. Some analysts even suggest that they dictate policy on the basis of their material interests. Cornelia Woll counters these assumptions, arguing that firms do not always know what they want. To be sure, firms lobby hard to attain a desired policy once they have defined their goals. Yet material factors are insufficient to account for these preferences. The ways in which firms are embedded in political settings are much more decisive. Woll demonstrates her case by analyzing the surprising evolution of support from large firms for liberalization in telecommunications and international air transport in the United States and Europe. Within less than a decade, former monopolies with important home markets abandoned their earlier calls for subsidies and protectionism and joined competitive multinationals in the demand for global markets. By comparing the complex evolution of firm preferences across sectors and countries, Woll shows that firms may influence policy outcomes, but policies and politics in turn influence business demands. This is particularly true in the European Union, where the constraints of multilevel decision-making encourage firms to pay lip service to liberalization if they want to maintain good working relations with supranational officials. In the United States, firms adjust their sectoral demands to fit the government's agenda. In both contexts, the interaction between government and firm representatives affects not only the strategy but also the content of business lobbying on global trade.

This book provides an innovative account of how the globalization of production and the emergence of global value chains impacts on trade preferences, lobby strategies and the political influence of EU firms. It sheds new light on the complex EU-China trade relations.

Takes stock of current challenges to the world trading system and develops scenarios for the future.

This volume reviews current debates on the role of business in politics and it assesses emerging methodological approaches to its study. The book brings together leading scholars to assess various qualitative and quantitative methods, network analysis, historical context and positive rational choice modeling, and detailed research case studies in the study of Business- Government relations.

This book systematically maps and assesses business lobbying in the European Union, drawing from political science and business studies.

Over the past two decades, the role of business in global governance has become increasingly topical. Transnational business associations are progressively more visible in international policy debates and in intergovernmental institutions, and there is a heightened attention given to global policy-making in national and international business communities. This text examines and explains the multiple modes of engagement between business and global governance; it presents a variety of theoretical approaches which can be used to analyse them, along with empirical illustrations. Featuring a range of leading US and European scholars, it is divided into three parts that summarize different modes of engagement. Each section is illustrated by two or three studies that represent a distinct theoretical take on the issue with empirical illustrations. The book examines: Business as master and purpose of global governance Business as subject and opponent to global governance Business as partner and facilitator of global governance This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Business Studies, International Relations, International Politics and International Political Economy, as well as for practitioners – in the public and private sector.

Based on over 300 in-depth interviews with company executives, business association representatives, and government officials, this study identifies a wide range of national economic policies influenced by lobbying, including taxes, technical standards, and intellectual property rights. These findings have significant implications for how we think about Chinese politics and economics, as well as government-business relations in general.

In the wake of worldwide economic turmoil and efforts toward recovery, understanding the interdependence of government and business is more important than ever. In this thoroughly updated edition, Lehne takes a comparative approach, evaluating the U.S. political economy with respect to those of Great Britain, Germany, Japan, and the EU. The book provides detailed historical context for, and a conceptual understanding of, the business-government environment, and then clarifies the roles of the major actors and outlines the regulatory and policy frameworks. Along the way, Lehne probes some of the most crucial dilemmas facing government and business today. Updates to this edition include: • expanded coverage of ethics as it relates to government and business; • greater attention to China in particular in the feature boxes on developing nations; and • a look at relations between government and business at the subnational level. A comprehensive glossary and chapter summaries enhance student learning.